Hamilton businessman Goodwin Davano Spencer is facing jail after being convicted of 11 charges of money laundering totalling more than $145,000.

The offences, involving profits from drug trafficking on the part of another man, were committed from November 2004 to November 2005.

Spencer, 40, of Loyal Hill Road, Devonshire, runs Tuff Shoes and Mega Power Car Care Products from his Court Street business premises. He is also a concert promoter.

During his month-long Supreme Court trial, the jury heard from prosecutors how the money was the profits from drug trafficking on behalf of a Trinidadian named Wayne Jagoo.

Wire transfers and drafts went to associates of Jagoo's in Trinidad and the UK as part of the crime.

The first five counts related to Spencer sending money, or trying to assist Jagoo to have access to his money, through the use of bank wires and bank drafts.

Prosecutors set out how he used accounts belonging to other persons referred to as "nominees" to send money via them to Jagoo.

The jury heard that Harrison Isaac Jr. was one of the persons who arranged banking transactions that got the money to Jagoo. Isaac Jr. was convicted in 2006 in an unrelated case of stealing more than $1.9 million from the Government of Bermuda by abusing his position within the Accountant General's department to make illegal wire transactions.

The initials H.I., said by prosecutors to represent his name, were listed in a notebook kept by Spencer relating to transactions in the current case.

Count six related to Spencer helping Jagoo access the funds by getting others to send bank drafts to him directly.

The rest of the charges stemmed from him facilitating Jagoo by getting people to open Bermuda bank accounts, then giving him the ATM cards. Prosecutors said the cards were then used for withdrawals overseas that got money to Jagoo.

Some of the evidence during the trial related to a yacht named Julie, which arrived in Bermuda from Antigua on November 5, 2004. The boat was searched by a narcotics officer but he was unable to send his sniffer dog into the cockpit due to a hazardous diesel spill.

Jagoo had arrived in Bermuda the day before on a flight from London. The first of the transactions in question was on November 9, when Spencer sent a wire of $7,500 from a Bermuda bank account in his name to Jagoo's girlfriend in Trinidad. Jagoo flew back to London on November 10.

Senior Crown counsel Paula Tyndale said the arrival of the boat, the presence on the Island of Mr. Jagoo and the way the transactions were handled were all circumstantial evidence of the funds in question being related to drug trafficking.

However, she stressed during her closing speech to the jury on Friday that the Crown had not led evidence that any drugs were found on the boat.

"We're not able to prove that there was an offence of importation of drugs. What we are charging is money laundering, based on behaviour that must have given rise to knowledge or suspicion on the part of the defendant that there was criminal conduct," she explained.

Spencer, who denied all the charges against him, claimed through defence lawyer Charles Richardson that some of the transactions related to him purchasing the boat from Jagoo in November 2004.

Mr. Richardson also asked the jury to accept that the remainder could have been related to a legitimate business venture that Spencer entered into with Jagoo to import and export goods and promote concerts. The trial heard evidence from local lawyer Corin Smith that he was asked to register a limited liability company in Bermuda as such.

The jury's verdicts of guilty by a majority of nine to three came after six hours of deliberation. Chief Justice Richard Ground ordered a pre-sentence report and remanded Spencer into custody until the December 1 arraignment session, when a sentencing date should be fixed.

Spencer faces additional charges in a separate case of possessing cannabis with intent to supply and conspiring to supply cannabis. A date for his trial on those matters should also be fixed on December 1.

Although the jury was not told of it, Jagoo was convicted in the UK of possessing criminal property in the form of $170,000 US in July 2005, having been arrested after returning from his trip to Bermuda.